Some Cool Paragliding T-Shirts

A whole bunch of paragliding t-shirts are available online
these days. Some artistic types have taken it upon themselves to produce
some great designs.

Most of the available t-shirts are pre-shrunk 100% cotton. We ordered one From Cafe-Press.

Well, it was Christmas, so they were flat-out. Hence it took a few
days extra for the t-shirt to arrive, as expected. In a thick,
well-sealed white plastic bag.

Shirt quality was ok, it's had a
few washes now, with no problems. It doesn't feel like one of those
transfer-type printed t-shirts, since it's direct printed. See the next section for details on this type of shirt-printing technology.

Direct Printing

Interestingly, direct printing technology is used for most
paragliding apparel at CafePress. Like the name suggests, the design is
printed directly onto the item with sprays of ink. Sort of like an
ink-jet printer for shirts!

The main benefit is durability,
since no cracking and not much fading occurs during the lifetime of the
garment. Also, comfort is good since the design is embedded in the
fabric itself.

A disadvantage of direct printing is that the images are not as colorful and clear as for the traditional method, heat transfer. There's not as much fine detail.

Heat Transfer

Some people still prefer their paragliding t-shirts done with heat
transfer since this actually gives better looking images! Particularly
when photographs are part of the design.

Disadvantages?
Well, the transfer feels slightly 'plastic' or stiff when the garment is
worn. Plus the design eventually fades and/or cracks. Sometimes the
image goes slightly yellow as well, after a long time.

Currently, most people prefer direct printing.

The Whole Kit And Kaboodle

All the paragliding stuff from CafePress, in other words. There's an enormous range of paragliding stuff here.

When
browsing though it all myself one day, I couldn't help noticing that
the designs tended to belong to one or more of the following categories.

Humor. Always popular with wearers of paragliding garments! Nearly everyone likes a laugh.

Promotional. A pretty broad category, this one. After all, most paraglider pilots are pretty one-eyed about their incredible sport!

Art.
Some decent artistic talent is evident in a lot of these designs. I
think the natural beauty of paragliders lends itself to dreamy, emotive
designs.

By and For Paraglider Pilots. A few designs on paragliding t-shirts will only be fully understood by other paraglider pilots!